Well I for one am glad the frivolity of fireworks is over in Canberra, too many people behaving like who can make the biggest bang in the wee small hours. Not to mention the neighbourhood dogs going crazy. Nowadays I'm happy to go and watch the celebrations on NYE and Australia Day or even Queens birthday long weekend. Then again with government budgets being scaled back thesedays maybe these fireworks displays will be a thing of the past.

Back to the weather, started out as a cold frosty sunny day but high cloud rolled in and took the edge off the warmth. I see South Pacific nations like Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia have yet another Tropical Cyclone to contend with.First it was STC Cook then STC Donna and now we have TC Ella and to think I managed a cruise to that area last week for 13 days and managed to miss them.

On another related note, it's good to see the BOM put into the forecast warnings about smoke haze. Ironic.

There was a fair amount of fire smoke around here today as well. No idea where it came from but it was lingering, although I couldn't smell it. Wind was a light to moderate southerly so I am a bit puzzled.

Edited by Wave Rider (11/05/201719:10)

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The longer you wait for storms, the more you appreciate them.

Yep I've had a Bunga go off in my hand too and that was 20 minutes after the wick was lit, thought it was dead, picked it up and boom!!Jumping Jacks were a favourite of mine, we used to throw them in the river and watch them illuminate the water, that was pretty cool.

Four days in a row now that its failed to get to 20c, although it went close again today with a top of 19.8c. A couple of drizzly showers today but not enough to register.

Yeah the old firecrackers, great memories from the late 70s and early to mid 80s for my era. (was living in southern Sydney then)We used to go to Hurstville Oval for the final event, and usually had billets with us from our football team at that time of the year. (ironically country kids from Singleton! where I work now)I remember later some people would still buy some from Canberra, as the ACT was THE place to buy anything that was illegal in NSW.ON the current weather, minimums this morning are above the forecast, for the first time in quite a while, around 12C now.Some cloud cover and light showers have stopped it getting too cold.

I feel like I missed out on what would've been great times being a kid in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s etc.

My last story......before the Port Kembla to Windang sandhills were destroyed by so called soil conservation, there were some patches of skeleton forest. This is where a forest had been covered by a shifting dune, then re-exposed some hundreds of years later. The resulting tree skeletons were rock hard and dry as.

Me and the mates got heavy ropes and pulled many large tree trunks together in a huge bonfire that burnt for days.

Cool and cloudy here, after a night that was warmer than the last few. The sun has started to break through and it's warming up. Will probably make the forecast 22 if the sun sticks around.

Derek - I was 20 years ahead of you. Cracker night memories for me run from the late 50s into the mid 60s. The night itself was a family affair in the back year, but fireworks were on sale for a few weeks before the big day, so it was fun to let off a few with mates at each other's places, in the park and so forth.

I feel like I missed out on what would've been great times being a kid in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s etc.

My last story......before the Port Kembla to Windang sandhills were destroyed by so called soil conservation, there were some patches of skeleton forest. This is where a forest had been covered by a shifting dune, then re-exposed some hundreds of years later. The resulting tree skeletons were rock hard and dry as.

Me and the mates got heavy ropes and pulled many large tree trunks together in a huge bonfire that burnt for days.

I once found a fulgurite in that ghost forest.

That would've been fun but if someone did that nowadays, the authorities would be right there. I just had a little read of what fulgurite is and it's silica oxide that's melted from lightning. I'd love to find one of those. So I would assume that some quartz was struck by lightning and then turned in fulgurite. Do you still have it?

Edited by Wave Rider (12/05/201712:15)

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The longer you wait for storms, the more you appreciate them.

I feel like I missed out on what would've been great times being a kid in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s etc.

My last story......before the Port Kembla to Windang sandhills were destroyed by so called soil conservation, there were some patches of skeleton forest. This is where a forest had been covered by a shifting dune, then re-exposed some hundreds of years later. The resulting tree skeletons were rock hard and dry as.

Me and the mates got heavy ropes and pulled many large tree trunks together in a huge bonfire that burnt for days.

I once found a fulgurite in that ghost forest.

That would've been fun but if someone did that nowadays, the authorities would be right there. I just had a little read of what fulgurite is and it's silica oxide that's melted from lightning. I'd love to find one of those. So I would assume that some quartz was struck by lightning and then turned in fulgurite. Do you still have it?

I gave away 2 sections to rock collectors, but have one left about 8-9 cms long. The Primbee dunes were full of silica and some sand mining occurred for that and other heavy rare minerals like Rutile.

The biggest myth about the sandhill loss was that they were mined and sent to Hawaii. There was mining and exports, maybe Hawaii. But this in my estimate hardly scratched the surface.

The main reason for the loss was they got the dozers out and levelled the dunes, bulldozing the tops of dunes into the hollows between. Indigenous middens in the process. They than sprayed tar onto the sand and planted Bitou Bush from South Africa, and Manna Grass from Israel. Although the vegetation is now quite thick it is a ecosystem desert of teatree,some wattle and Bitou Bush. No animals live there. Wollongong council may as well sell it off for a internationnal standard links golf course

It wrecked all the surfing banks as well. The beach front between the dunes and the sea was 200-400m wide once, now it is 20m at best meeting a cliff of sand. When big seas hit in the 1960's the waves would wash into the dune hollows, thus negating the wash back affect to almost nothing. Now the waves simply pile against the sand wall and wash back with a ton of sand in the process.

I don't understand why the council would've changed the dunes when they were fine the way they were (or maybe they weren't). Yes now it is a crap ecosystem all along that beach with ugly bitou bush that is of course out of control and now regarded as a pest species I think. Of course I have only ever seen the dunes like this I have no idea what these ghost forests would've looked like.

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The longer you wait for storms, the more you appreciate them.

@donzah. Try this with images embedding. Go to imgur HereUpload image. When it uploads it creates a direct link in address bar. Copy that link and choose the add image tool in weatherzone reply and paste link. Its what I do anyway.

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If you can't change something, there is only one option. Adapt!

I don't understand why the council would've changed the dunes when they were fine the way they were (or maybe they weren't). Yes now it is a crap ecosystem all along that beach with ugly bitou bush that is of course out of control and now regarded as a pest species I think. Of course I have only ever seen the dunes like this I have no idea what these ghost forests would've looked like.

I think in the 1970's they were just gung-ho over job creation. It was Soil Conservation Works. They was a worry that the big dune at Primbee (over 100ft high) was going to blow over the new Primbee bypass. Other theories were cattle had made the dunes due to eating all the grass (rubbish). Another theory was WW2 exercises had denuded the area creating the dunes, another rubbish theory.

Just like the "mysterious" second entrance to the lake near where Harvey Norman is now. This in fact was a barge canal dredged into the dunes to deliver concrete blocks for a tank trap. That is how worried we were that the Japs were targeting PK steelworks. Parts of the "historic" tank trap are also buried under that dune vandalism now.

There's a light shower happening here after what has been a cool to mild, fairly cloudy day. There are a couple of cells out to sea moving in from the NE which might hit soon. The showers don't seem to be penetrating far inland.